Not a good month for me, so decided to engage in some retail therapy and get a replacement for my old Lowepro Stealth Reporter 200AW.
Crumpler had recently updated their range of bags to incorporate what they call a "silencer" which fixed one of my pet peeves - the sound of velcro riiipping when I opened their bags (one of the reasons why I sold off my Budgie Smuggler years back. The silencer design uses a piece of ballistic nylon to cover the velcro when moments of silence are required.. e.g. when you are sneaking in the forest to take a shot of a bird and need to pull out your camera.
After much agonizing about whether to get the smaller 5 Million Dollar bag or the larger 6 Million, I decided to get the Crumpler 6 Million Dollar Home bag since it came with a shoulder pad AND it allowed me to fit in a netbook if I chose to to. In terms of color, I was deliberating between the dark brown bag or the black one.. in the end I went with black as I thought the cool green inserts looked better than the traditional Crumpler powder blue.
So, what are my thoughts about the bag.. well, nothing bad to say actually. It allows me to carry the two main configurations that I use - the street shooter/travelling configuration of a DSLR body and a small prime plus a wide angle on the side and a small tabletop tripod and flash in the other pouch or the birder configuration of a DSLR body and my 80-400mm lens. In my opinion, it is too large for rangefinder style micro 4/3s cameras like the Panasonic GF1 and the Oly EP series - the 4 or 5 million dollar home would be better bets. However, it is a pretty good fit for a GH1 with a couple of lenses.
The padding is adequate, and typical of many other good camera bags out there, there are many handy pockets to store a small notepad and memory cards. It is missing some features I like on my SR200 - namely, the belt loop, tripod straps and the waterproof cover - I have to say so that I have never used any of these features on my SR200. Practicality, however, isnt the reason why people buy Crumplers, there are other bags out in the market that have more fetaures, have better weatherproofing, better strap.... people buy Crumpler bags because of the coolness factor and I think that this bag looks way cooler than my old Lowepro...
Crumpler had recently updated their range of bags to incorporate what they call a "silencer" which fixed one of my pet peeves - the sound of velcro riiipping when I opened their bags (one of the reasons why I sold off my Budgie Smuggler years back. The silencer design uses a piece of ballistic nylon to cover the velcro when moments of silence are required.. e.g. when you are sneaking in the forest to take a shot of a bird and need to pull out your camera.
After much agonizing about whether to get the smaller 5 Million Dollar bag or the larger 6 Million, I decided to get the Crumpler 6 Million Dollar Home bag since it came with a shoulder pad AND it allowed me to fit in a netbook if I chose to to. In terms of color, I was deliberating between the dark brown bag or the black one.. in the end I went with black as I thought the cool green inserts looked better than the traditional Crumpler powder blue.
So, what are my thoughts about the bag.. well, nothing bad to say actually. It allows me to carry the two main configurations that I use - the street shooter/travelling configuration of a DSLR body and a small prime plus a wide angle on the side and a small tabletop tripod and flash in the other pouch or the birder configuration of a DSLR body and my 80-400mm lens. In my opinion, it is too large for rangefinder style micro 4/3s cameras like the Panasonic GF1 and the Oly EP series - the 4 or 5 million dollar home would be better bets. However, it is a pretty good fit for a GH1 with a couple of lenses.
The padding is adequate, and typical of many other good camera bags out there, there are many handy pockets to store a small notepad and memory cards. It is missing some features I like on my SR200 - namely, the belt loop, tripod straps and the waterproof cover - I have to say so that I have never used any of these features on my SR200. Practicality, however, isnt the reason why people buy Crumplers, there are other bags out in the market that have more fetaures, have better weatherproofing, better strap.... people buy Crumpler bags because of the coolness factor and I think that this bag looks way cooler than my old Lowepro...
